Bruce Springsteen, like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, isn't your "greatest hits" kinda guy, is he? Like those two, he is not particularly known for hit singles and many of his best album tracks are lengthy numbers. I am sure there are many Bruce aficionados/obsessives just like me who would have chosen tracks such as Racing In The Street, The Promised Land, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), Incident On 57th Street, Blinded By The Light, Lost In the Flood, Sandy (4th Of July, Asbury Park), Jungleland, Backstreets, Cadillac Ranch, The Price You Pay, Sherry Darling, Point Blank, No Surrender, Highway Patrolman .....I could type on endlessly and none of them are on here. What we get on here are actually a few of my least favourite Boss numbers! So, I'm not quite sure who this collection is intended to appeal to. I will add my song-by-song comments, however. First, a brief diversion - a little intro to "me 'n' Bruce" - On Friday September 29, 1978, aged nine
You could make a really great New Romantic or New Wave compilation album from these people. There were great songs on all these albums. Let's see if I could make a great compilation.
ReplyDeleteSoft Cell - Sex Dwarf
Duran Duran - Girls on Film
Adam and the Ants - Antmusic
Culture Club - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
Human League - Love Action
ABC - The Look of Love
Japan - Quiet Life
Duran Duran - This is Planet Earth
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Spandau Ballet - True
Duran Duran - Hungry like the Wolf
Human League - Don't You Want Me
Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier
Culture Club - Church of the Poison Mind
ABC - Be Near Me
Human League - Fascination
Duran Duran - New Moon on Monday
Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver
Culture Club - Karma Chameleon
Hey that's a great compilation! Most of my favourites are on there. I would add Soft Cell's wonderful Say Hello Wave Goodbye and a vaguely new romantic one (it was from that era) in Yazoo's Only You.
DeleteYou can read the reviews by clicking on the pics...
I was just including the people that you reviewed here, but I can think of a million great New Wave hits. There's a couple other good ones by Yazoo too (or Yaz, as they were called in the states). But look how many you can get just from this group of albums. I have a new wave list somewhere and I remember it was really long.
ReplyDeleteALL your lists are really long!
DeleteYes, I realised once I'd suggested Yazoo that your list was just from these ones on here. (I have actually reviewed Yazoo as well, somewhere). Funny about "Yaz" because we also had Yazz & The Plastic Population who had a number one hit with The Only Way Is Up, which you may know.
I never heard of that Yazz. Here's that list
ReplyDeletehttps://rateyourmusic.com/list/bobbyb5/greatest-new-wave-singles/
It's a good list. Too long, of course! I would have some Tom Robinson Band, Rubinoos, Graham Parker and The Boomtown Rats in there. Apologies if I missed them.
DeleteCheck out The Only Way Is Up. I think you'd like it.
One time I had a Tom Robinson album called Hope and Glory that I liked. I don't know why I had it because I never knew any of his other stuff. Rubinoos I don't know at all. and I've heard Graham Parker but I don't remember it.
ReplyDeleteTOM ROBINSON
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGrnEc_3mYo
THE RUBINOOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxeKnlcfEw
GRAHAM PARKER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kQXko2W0sU
Okay now I remember who Graham Parker is, because a guy I used to live with was playing an album and a song came on and I said, this is Turned Up Too Late that The Pointer Sisters did. cuz they did it on one of their albums, which was really pretty good in fact. I think the Graham Parker album cover was just a black and white picture of him standing there but I don't remember the name of it.
ReplyDeleteThis video was cool cuz it was so '70s. Dig that shiny satin suit the one guy was wearing . The song sounded a little bit familiar to me so maybe it was on the same album. This must have been from a TV show or something.
I thought you would have known the song, Hold Back The Night, as it was originally done by disco/soul group The Trammps. It was a hit on the Northern Soul circuit as well as in the regular charts.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X49doPwp0bc
The only Trammps album I had was Disco Inferno but this song wasn't on it.
DeleteBack in the 90s I went to a disco revival show and it had the Trammps and Gloria Gaynor and Heatwave and a bunch of other people. It was at this huge convention center and there were about a million people there.
I forgot Motorway and who did it. That must have been his big song if I heard it over here. It's amazing how young everybody looks in the video. It looks like they're about 14 years old. Lol
ReplyDeleteThey were about 18, I think. I went to see them (gig details below) and I dressed just like that - white shirt and school tie - together with a pink triangle gay rights badge like Tom is wearing, despite the fact that I wasn't (am not) a homosexual :).
DeleteI also attended the Ultravox gig advertised in the same link. Two gigs like that in three days! We were spoilt!
https://www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk/tomrobinson78.html
Yes indeed. I think I have heard that Rubinoos before. I Think We're Alone Now is one of the greatest songs ever and they did it flawlessly. It's got a great sound to it. It's a little more bassy than the Tommy James which makes it sound really good. It's more like Pop Rock but that's okay cuz that's probably my favorite kind. This is from the time period when everybody was doing that song like Lene Lovich, which also is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThis was The Rubinoos gig I went to -
Deletehttps://www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk/rubinoos78.html
The poster said 150p at the door to get in. Does the p stand for pounds? It couldn't be 150 pounds cuz wouldn't that be about 100 dollars?
ReplyDeleteYes, unbelievably it means £1.50p!! That is ONE POUND & 50 PENCE! I have a David Bowie poster on my computer room wall for a gig in 1972 and the tickets were 60 pence! I saw The Jam and The Clash for £1.99 - loads of them. Too many to mention!
DeleteEven the bigger gigs were cheap. I remember seeing Queen in 1977 for £2.50 and Springsteen in 1981 for £5 (fifth row too!).
I wish I was old enough at the time to see all the bands that were big back then. I was only 3 years old in 1978. Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteYou sure missed a great time.
Delete